52 Reasons to Love the Church
By Kathy Pollard
We just finished our week of VBS and I was struck by how much I learned during those few short evenings of togetherness. First, allow me to share some things that happened, and then I’ll get to what I learned.
My role was kitchen helper. Every night we ended up with more helpers than we expected. Sally Ware and Dana Simpson were there early every night, but soon sweet faces like Kim Eubanks, Joyce Johnson, Neata Wiley, Diane Boyles, Terrie Hudson, Alice Humphrey, Kelli Nicks, Heather Paschal, Rosa Raby, and more would jump in to help serve and clean.
One night I had a few responsibilities to take care of, but when I showed up, Russell and Dana Simpson were there and had already taken care of all of them.
Every time we were short something and mentioned it, someone nearby would volunteer to go get it. For example, I said I didn’t think we had enough bottled water to get through the next night. Stephen Pitcock heard and said, “I’ll pick some up!” The next night we saw that he not only picked them up, he went ahead and put them in the large cooler for us.
Greg Neville was the VBS coordinator. Every night he helped us by moving the heavy coolers, refilling any foods we were serving, clearing out trash, and basically just jumping in wherever there was a need (like assembling opened faced S’mores).
Diane Boyles brought some fresh cut fruit one night. I told her later that I didn’t get to try any of her sliced peaches but they looked good. The next evening she brought me two juicy, ripe peaches and said, “These are for you.”
Chris Young taught the adult class one night. His text was Acts 7 and he brought out points about Stephen’s sermon that I hadn’t considered. For instance, remember when God told Moses to deliver His people and one of excuses Moses gave was that he was “not eloquent of speech” but was “slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Exod. 4:10-12)? Well, in Stephen’s sermon he referred to Moses as “mighty in his words and deeds” (Ac. 7:22). I’d never noticed that before!
What did I learn?
- Many hands make light work, yes, but they also make the work more fun!
- I need to be better about looking for ways to help others instead of just focusing on my little role. Many of the thoughtful gestures made all week were by folks who had their own VBS responsibilities to take care of.
- Good leadership looks like rolling your sleeves up and working alongside everyone else.
- There are needs everywhere and everyone can fill those needs. People just saw a need and took care of it, instead of looking around to find someone else to take care of it.
- Small gestures lead to big joy. When I thanked Diane for the peaches she said, “It’s not much.” I said, “Yes, it is!” And I meant it. Of course I love peaches, but the very fact that she thought of me warmed my heart and made me smile.
- No matter how old you are, you can learn something new at VBS!
I know many of you won’t know any of the names that I mentioned, but I do. They’re real people making a real difference. They’re my Family and I thank God for the blessing of learning from them!
The amazing thing to me is that this is just a small glimpse of VBS from MY perspective. Who knows what all was collectively shared and learned this week from everyone else’s?
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.”
(Ecc. 4:9)
Life and Favor (Job 10:12) 